Published in Overland Issue Print Issue 198 Autumn 2010 · Writing / Main Posts A souqi Maysoon Elnigoumi As I listen to you In a common peculiar mood Something within wants to kill you Hunt down gazelles galloping from your eyes I say and I am wise These are not days for gazelles Or is it a dark mind? Damp, dense And what is poetry? Trash And a bit of rhyme And the hidden symbols of a poem Are nothing but mice traps With cheap cheese, Or is it a dense mind? Damp, dark How did I come to this my love? Vile! Vile! All forbidden! Something within wants to kill you And all gazelles galloping from your eyes My love she of stinking feet Dipped her toes into my waters And all fish rose to the surface Yet there is tenderness within Had I died before I wrote poetry And all this trash How did I come to this my love? Come! Maysoon Elnigoumi Maysoon Elnigoumi lives in Sydney and writes poetry and articles on literature, music and arts, some of which have appeared in Sudanese newspapers. More by Maysoon Elnigoumi › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 28 March 20249 April 2024 · Main Posts Why we should value not only lived experience, but also lived expertise Sukhmani Khorana In the wake of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I want to extend the central idea of El Gibbs’s 2022 essay on 'lived expertise' and argue that in media accounts of racism, analytical expertise and lived experience ought to be valued together and even in the same body. 5 March 2024 · Main Posts Andrew Charlton’s school assignment Alex McKinnon Australia's Pivot to India exists for three reasons: so that when Andrew Charlton is interviewed on the radio or introduced on Q+A, his bio includes the phrase "he has written a book about Indian-Australian relations"; to fend off accusations that he is another Kristina Keneally engaging in electoral colonialism in western Sydney; and to help the Albanese government strengthen economic and military ties with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
